Gallery tour

WARNING: Visitors should be aware that this website includes images and names of deceased people that may cause sadness or distress to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Gallery tour

Here you can take a virtual tour of the displays and read more information about the stories found in the First Australians gallery.

The upper level of the gallery features a rich array of exhibitions about specific Indigenous communities. The lower level of the gallery focuses on aspects of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history since 1788.

Image Gallery Page Navigation

Link-Up: Bringing them homeLower gallery

Photo: Judith Hickson.

The Link-Up display introduces the stories of three people taken from their families as young children. Link-Up reconnects Indigenous people with their culture and supports them in this vulnerable time. Link-Up New South Wales was founded in 1981 to help Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, removed as children, find their families and for families find their long-lost children.

The Framlingham bark hutLower gallery

Photo: National Museum of Australia.

This bark mission hut was constructed at the National Museum of Australia from materials brought from the Framlingham Mission near Warrnambool in south-west Victoria. Bill Edwards, who lived on the mission in a similar hut with his family during the 1920s and 1930s, supervised its construction by the people from the Framlingham community. The hut celebrates the memories of those who lived on the mission.

Fighting for our rights: Wreck BayLower gallery

Photo: National Museum of Australia.

This display showcases some of the surfing gear made by Doolagahs Indigenous Designs Pty Ltd. Run by Shane Martin and Stephen Dixon, the business operates out of the Wreck Bay community in New South Wales. The Wreck Bay community was granted land rights over 403 hectares by the Commonwealth Government in 1987. Jervis Bay National Park was also transferred to the community in December 1995.

Fighting for our rights: WikLower gallery

Photo: George Serras.

Wik Country is located on the western Cape York Peninsula, Queensland. The main town centre is Aurukun. The Wik people have been fighting for a long time to have their rights recognised under Australian law. In a landmark case in 1996, the High Court of Australia ruled that pastoral leases did not necessarily extinguish native title to land.

This display features part of the Sea of Hands, first displayed outside the Australian Parliament House in Canberra in October 1997. The Sea of Hands was an initiative of Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTaR), a community organisation supporting the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Fighting for our rights: Murray Island (Mer)Lower gallery

Photo: George Serras.

In 1992 the High Court of Australia recognised that the people of Mer (Murray Island), one of the Torres Strait Islands, retained native title over their traditional lands. This landmark decision, known as the Mabo decision, was a turning point in Australia's legal history and enabled Indigenous people across Australia to seek legal recognition of customary links to their lands.

This display showcases a drum and drum sticks from the Mer region, together with an image of one of the three Torres Strait Islander men who fought the Mabo case, Father Dave Passi (2000).

Aboriginal people are overrepresented in all forms of custody. John Johnson, an Aboriginal artist now living in Canberra, was gaoled in Darwin when he was 15 years old for stealing a packet of cigarettes and a can of drink. His artwork The Last Wave is his response to his time in gaol.